Apple on Monday announced its earnings for the company's first fiscal quarter of 2014, netting $13.1 billion in profit on $57.6 billion in revenue, driven by sales of 51 million iPhones and 26 million iPads -- the most ever sold in a single quarter.

Both the iPhone and iPad sales figures for the December quarter were new records for Apple, besting sales of 47.8 million iPhones and 22.9 million iPads in the year-ago quarter.

Shares of Apple fell nearly 6 percent after the results were first revealed Monday afternoon. Market expectations called for Apple to post $58 billion in revenues on sales of around 56.5 million iPhones and 24.5 million iPads.

Mac sales in the quarter were at 4.8 million, up from 4.1 million a year ago and better than investor projections of 4.6 million. However, Wall Street watchers place more emphasis on the company's iPhone and iPad lineups, which represent the lion's share of Apple's profits.

Apple posted its best quarter ever, but still came in slightly below Wall Street expectations, causing shares to dip in after-hours trading on Monday."We are really happy with our record iPhone and iPad sales, the strong performance of our Mac products and the continued growth of iTunes, Software and Services," said Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook. "We love having the most satisfied, loyal and engaged customers, and are continuing to invest heavily in our future to make their experiences with our products and services even better."

Apple earned $14.50 per diluted share in the just-concluded quarter, up from $13.81 a year ago. Gross margins dipped year over year, from 38.6 percent in the year-ago period, to 37.9 percent this fiscal year.

Looking forward to its fiscal 2014 second quarter, Apple has guided revenue between $42 billion and $44 billion with gross margin between 37 percent and 38 percent. The company projects operating expenses between $4.3 billion and $4.4 billion, with other income of around $200 million.

"We generated $22.7 billion in cash flow from operations and returned an additional $7.7 billion in cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases during the December quarter, bringing cumulative payments under our capital return program to over $43 billion," Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said.

I think people forget that Wall St. "expectations" are really just the news media, whose predictions are often wrong. This should speak more about the accuracy and ultimately the legitimacy of commercial media, but don't hold your breath waiting for them to correct their own behavior.

To be fair, press "expectations" for Samsung were also pretty off, however also to be fair, Samsung products still suck out loud.

The scum bags on Wall Street have been beating their chests and proclaiming for weeks they know how Apple runs their business BETTER than Apple, and now that the real numbers come out, everyone thinks they are a failure because it didn't live up to the FABRICATED LIES that were perpetuated by anal-lysts and they go and tank the stock.

This is just the most disgusting form greed and utter stupidity I've ever witnessed! Like someone else posted, imaging if this were Microsoft, Google, or dare I say, Amazon, those same dirt bags would be creaming themselves over these results!

This is why I don't play the Wall Scum investment game, because it's so corrupt, only those with very deep pockets can afford to play it.

Please don't feed the trolls, otherwise, they'll breed, and we don't want that to happen!

The number that I was surprised by was the cash flow. I was unaware of the specific definition for that and looked it up. This is the total earnings plus expenses such as depreciation that are taken out as expenses. I think this is a better measure of Apple's income given how conservative they are about paying down and writing off expenses. Remember the whole software expense write off? Apple has a 26% marginal tax rate. Any cash flow that can become an expense is less taxes to pay. That is basic business management when cash is not needed for any reinvestment that offers more than a 26% return rate. Apple's current cash position and strong intellectual portfolio are the reasons they can be so aggressive here. $22.7 is one huge pile of cash from one quarter of operations. I wonder where that ranks on records for public companies?

Apple has all the signs they need: If they want growth (Only someone out of touch with the reality would say that they “need” it to survive, as the best quarter ever shows… but let’s be real.) on the smartphone arena, especially the premium segment, a bigger screen is required.

For a modern smartphone (all about web, reading and editing docs, apps, pdfs and books, games and video) a bigger screen is required.

4.5 phones are very very portable, no big difference in size, huge difference in usability.

And a bigger iPhone line for the ones that want it but are buying the note, s4, g2, nexus, z1, one, etc. maybe another 30 million per quarter?

"Shares of Apple fell nearly 6 percent after the results were first revealed Monday afternoon. Market expectations called for Apple to post $58 billion in revenues..."

Of course, Wall Street sets their own expectations, ignoring Apple's guidance, as if that guidance has no bearing or credibility. If Wall Street accepted Apple's guidance, then they'd be VERY happy with the result. That is, Apple finished very, very close to the top of their guidance. Which was this (from the Q4 2013 call):

Apple provided the following guidance for its fiscal 2014 first quarter:

The scum bags on Wall Street have been beating their chests and proclaiming for weeks they know how Apple runs their business BETTER than Apple, and now that the real numbers come out, everyone thinks they are a failure because it didn't live up to the FABRICATED LIES that were perpetuated by anal-lysts and they go and tank the stock.

This is just the most disgusting form greed and utter stupidity I've ever witnessed! Like someone else posted, imaging if this were Microsoft, Google, or dare I say, Amazon, those same dirt bags would be creaming themselves over these results!

This is why I don't play the Wall Scum investment game, because it's so corrupt, only those with very deep pockets can afford to play it.

Stock prices is all about growth potential, and Apple is not delivering it. Guidance for next quarter is bad, iPhone number is bad, stock goes down, there is no mystery here and it doesn't mean Apple is doom or that analyst expectations were too high....

"Shares of Apple fell nearly 6 percent after the results were first revealed Monday afternoon. Market expectations called for Apple to post $58 billion in revenues..."

Of course, Wall Street sets their own expectations, ignoring Apple's guidance, as if that guidance has no bearing or credibility. If Wall Street accepted Apple's guidance, then they'd be VERY happy with the result. That is, Apple finished very, very close to the top of their guidance. Which was this (from the Q4 2013 call):

Apple provided the following guidance for its fiscal 2014 first quarter:

Well, Tim, it looks like Wall Street is looking for your answer. This was definitely not it.

It looks like your margin of error is getting slimmer.

Apple provides a range for earnings and they beat the middle of that range. The analysts are jackasses. If you could pick up an undervalued stock at a bargain basement price by badmouthing and floating bad data, would you do the same? That's a very large incentive to poison the well and pick up AAPL at a discount.

Quote:

Apple provided the following guidance for its fiscal 2014 first quarter: